Lots of Learning

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: this week we learned the lowercase letters l, h, k.  

Please use the following verbal prompts when practicing at home:

l: down

h: down, up and over

k: down, pick up your pencil, point to the plane line, slide over a bit, slant in, slant out

Shared Reading: we learned our first 4 letter word wall word, like.  We learned this word has a silent e.  We talked about how not all words can be sounded out and sometimes there are letters in words that you can't hear, but make the word look right.  We read the Big Book What I like and the poems I like to play and The Colors of Fall to help us practice our new word wall word.  The children now have copies of these in their book boxes to read at "Read to Self" time.  In the pictures below they are working with a buddy to read What I like and highlight the word wall words they find. 

Daily 5: we have a new Daily 5 center called "Search & Tally."  At this center they search through picture books and tally every time they see one of our word wall words in the book.  This center helps them become aware of known words in print, a beginning step in the reading process.  This is also an easy way to practice word wall words at home!  They loved their new center!

Writing Workshop: they are doing great with their new writing folders and paper!  We created this chart to help us follow the steps of the writing process.  We will learn steps 4 and 5 soon!  Ask your child what they wrote about this week. 

Math: this week we learned about the rectangle.  We learned it has 4 sides and 4 vertices.  We also learned it has 2 short sides and 2 long sides and this is what makes it different from a square.  We also spent several days learning about number story problems and drawing pictures to show our thinking when solving number stories.  
A few examples of the types of number story problems we worked on:
*Max picked 3 apples, then he picked 2 more.  How many apples did he pick altogether?
*Lucy has 4 crayons.  She gave 1 to Sarah.  How many crayons does Lucy have now?
*Katie has some marbles . Her friend gives her 1 marble.  Now Katie has 3 marbles.  How many marbles did Katie have to begin with?

Below are some ways friends in our class showed their thinking to solve problems.

When practicing at home, ask your child to think through their story problem by drawing pictures to show their thinking/work.

Friday Craft: this class absolutely LOVES Halloween!  Today we made Frankenstein!  

Halloween STEM: this afternoon we worked in the Media Center with Mrs. Fitch and our 3rd grade buddies in Mrs. Freese's room on a STEM activity (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). They had to work with a buddy and figure out how to build a tower with only 20 toothpicks and 20 gummies.  The tower had to be supported and not fall over.  They were then able to measure their towers to see who built the tallest towers. This took planning, problem-solving and team-work!

A few fun photos from the week